Method of moving heavy buildings or other structures.



PATENTED MAR. 10, 1903.

H. SHEELBR. METHOD OF MOVING HEAVY BUILDINGS OR OTHER STRUCTURES.

APPLICATION FILED 0OT.13, 1902.

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N0. 722,256L PATENTED MAR. 10',' 1903.

H.. SHEELER. METHOD OF MOVING HEAVY BUILDINGS OR OTHER STRUCTURES.

APPLICATION FILED 0OT.'13, 1902.

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PATBNTED MAR. 10,- 1903.

H. SHEELBRJ METHOD OF MOVING HEAVY BUILDINGS-0R OTHER STRUCTURES.

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HARVEY SIIEELER, OF CLEVELAND, OHIO.

METHOD OF MOVING HEAVY BUILDINGS OR OTHER STRUCTURES.

".iEECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent N 0. 722,256, dated March 10, 1903.

' Application filed October 13, 1902. Serial No. 127.103. (No model.)

I0 all whom, it Ill/(Ly concern: Beitknown that I, HARVEY SHEELER, a citizen of the United States of America, residing in the city of Cleveland, in the county of Guyahoga and State of Ohio, have invented a new and useful Method of Moving Heavy Buildings or other Structures, of which the following is a full, clear, and exact description, reference being had to the drawings accompanying and making a part of this specification.

Said method relates to the class of operations wherein the building to be moved is first undermined by a supporting-cribwork, which at the same time constitutes the path or track along which the building is to travel, and is then propelled or pulled on its course by any suitable power. When the structure to be operated upon was of the lighter kind, as in the case of small frame houses, it often sufficed to mount the same upon soaped or greased skids or ways without employing roller devices to facilitate movement; but in the majority of instances rollers have been inserted between the building and its track or ways. These rollers are usually of hard maple or other wood, and necessarily must have diameters of more than half a foot to insure against their being crushed under the superimposed weight. Neither of the methods of reducing friction above referred to are free from obj eotions. Greased or soaped skids are manifestly only applicable to structures of the lighter sort, and as to these each start is characterized by an undesirable vibration of the entire structure under transit. Wooden rollers, on the other hand, besides being open in a degree to the objection just noted are liable to mash themselves into their tracks when the building is at rest for any considerable time, as overnight or While new dead-men or anchorages are being laid. The building must accordingly be raised vertically out of these mash-holes, and many times the necessary propelling power must be constantly at hand for this service. So, too, said mashing propensity is likely to occur unequally among the several rollers employed and in this respect to introduce additional operative faults that it is most desirable to avoid. While, therefore, by reason of the foregoing the prevailing methods of moving buildings areimperfect, they are distinctly inapplicable to the heavy type of modern structure. The larger and more weighty masses of the latter as compared with frame buildings or buildings of but two or more stories increase the mashing effects to I a prohibitory degree and besides expose operations of the kind in question to accident or failure by the giving away or crushing of rollers of a material no stronger than wood. For these reasons former methods are wholly inadequate for moving a church, for instance, or a large office building or shop, while the employment of my method enables such undertakings to be successfully carried out. Said method will be readily apprehended by reference to the drawings herewith and the slight explanations I shall now proceed to make in connection therewith.

In said drawings, Figure I is aside elevation of a portion of a building in the process of being transferred from one location to another by my said method. Fig. II is an enlarged sectional View through the lines 00 m in Fig. I of an application of said moving system. Fig. III is an enlarged side view of the subject of Fig. II looking in the direction of the arrow in that figure.

In the several drawings the same letters are used to designate similar parts.

Describing said figures more particularly, A is the building to be moved, and a a a series of I-beams interposed immediately beneath and longitudinally to the same for the operation. Said I-beams rest upon a series of heavy transverse timbers b b, which in turn rest and are supported by a set of longitudinal timbers-0r saddles s s, that also serve as an abutment for a cross-timber '1, against which the propelling-screws P P hear at their forward extremities. On and along the lower face of the saddles s s I provide a sheet-metal plate M, that is to rest upon and be the upper bearing-surface for the moving-rollers R R, interposed beneath the same. The track upon which said rollers rest and that forms the path of travel for the building A is composed of steel rails L, that are laid upon a cribwork made up of longitudinal cross-timbers c and d in the usual manner. The rollers R R may be of comparatively small diameters; but it is an important requirement of my said invention and for its efficacy that the rollers R R, rails or tracks L, and upper bearing surfaces or plates M be composed of steel or other hard metal of the same relative consistencyandtemper. Suitablepropelling or motive agencies are of course to be em ployed.

In Fig. I, I show by way of illustrating my present invention a special arrangement for applying power invented by me, but which I reserve for the subject of another application for United States Letters Patent, which application was filed October 13, 1902, and bears Serial No. 127,102. The said agency (shown in Fig. 1) involves a removable cross buttress piece or timber B toward the rear of the cribwork at such distance from the timber T as will aiford suitable space for the location and advantageous operation of the screws P P when the latter are within their threaded pump-logs P. Said timber B is securely fastened in its said position in any convenient manner, as by the strain-chains C, Fig. I, wound around a cross-piece of the cribwork at some point in advance of the buttress or timber B. As a detail of such a fastening I show a special double claw or grip device, which I have made as a readily-adjustable and efficient method of clamping the chains together in the connection in question. I likewise reserve said device for the subject of a separate application for Letters Patent, which application was filed October 13, 1902, and bears Serial No. 127,104. The propellingscrews P P are provided with the pump-logs P, carrying female threads, and with a windlass-block to at their rear ends and when duly advanced within their pump-logs P are located between the timbers B and T, with their ends, respectively, abutting against the same. In the relation of the several parts above specified thus pointed out said screws may be rotated by any suitable ineansas, for instance, in the illustration by hand-spikes h, inserted in the Windlass-block w. The screws are thus actuated and the building pushed forward on the rollers R between its upper and lower bearing-surfaces of M and L until said screws have been withdrawn from their pump-logs to their full operative limit, when they may be again advanced within said pump-logs and the buttress piece or timber B correspondingly moved forward and secured in a new position for the work.

It will be found that by the hardened-metal features orinstruments that characterize my present invention substantially all friction due to mashing and irregular indentation one with respect to the other, to which I have hereinbefore called attention, is done away with and a method provided whereby the heaviest of movable structures can be safely and expeditiously transferred from one location to another. 7

Having thus described my said invention and shown a form of the application and operation thereof that will enable any one versed in the art to which it relates to practice the same, what I claim, and wish to secure by Letters Patent, is-- 1. A means or apparatus for moving buildings and other heavy structures consisting of a track for the same, rollers on said track to support said building, or structure thereon, and plates or sheet material, in bearing with said rollers, above and below the same, the said rollers and plates or sheet material being of hard metal of the same relative degree of temper, substantially as shown and described.

2. In an apparatus for moving buildings or other heavy structures, the combination with the track on which said building or structure is to travel, of a series of rollers upon said track, and bearing plates or surfaces above and below the same, the said rollers and hearing plates, or surfaces, being of hard metal of the same degree of temper, substantially as shown and described.

HARVEY SHEELER.

In presence of- OHAs. H. PARSONS, GEORGE C. WING. 

